The Videogames Tab

Don't you lot dare hog Steam's servers on the 1st

(Early amateur reviews of MM suggest it's a solid 3 stars )

On grey sellers, the most touted one at the moment seems to be CdKeys. From the little checking I've done it seems to be a seller, not a market, and is doing the traditional multi-region buy-up. It's got MM for an insane £13. Most chatter seems to suggest no-one's been hit by region lock or language issues though. (It seems to have got popular for Xbox Live vouchers etc though, where that wouldn't really affect anyone). One to watch anyway.

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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

CDKeys was on the news here or something - Some 16 year old kid started it and he's now a millionaire etc etc. It might not be a money laundering racket for Russian drug money, who knows? I've seen the light, though - Official resellers only for me from now on.

Basically:

From here. This is probably the closest we'll get to finding out all the 'legit' sites.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

Ah cool, funstockdigital seem to be the next cheapest

Lots of general chatter that region-shopping is how the majority achieve their price drops, GMG included. It does seem to be the only thing that makes sense. Outside of money laundering

Argh. Apparently the free Ground Zeroes is a Steam exclusive thing. Sorry golg.

Right, that's it! I'm boycotting Half Life 3!

Recent plays...

XCOM: Enemy Within (Xbox 360)
Possibly my favourite game of the last gen. Would be a five if it didn't run so poorly on the old hardware.

The Evil Within (Xbox 360)
Huge disappointment. Shoddy framerate, cheap difficulty and crap storyline all but ruin this poor man's Resi 4. Mikami's lost it.

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel! (Xbox 360)
Easily the least of the franchise so far. Love the zero g effects and the Jamie Hewlett inspired art is as gorgeous as ever, but frustrating level design and framerate issues get in the way.

Alien Isolation (Xbox 360)
I loved it, then I merely liked it, then I just wanted the bloody thing to end. Some of the best survival horror moments in years though.

Valkyria Chronicles (PS3)
Long overdue playthrough of this classic SRPG. Not a fan of anime, but it's undeniably one of the most beautiful games ever created. Solid turn based battles, a compelling story and likable (if a little too cutesy for me) characters make it deserving of the 'classic' status. Only criticism: it's way too easy to save characters with a medic thus removing much of the tension from battles. Otherwise stellar.

Diablo 3: Ultimate Evil Edition (PS3)
Why oh why did I get the disc version? Another button mashing fave' runs like molasses without an install on PS3. Hasn't stopped me starting a second character though. I can finally retire my copy of Sacred 2 on 360. Yay!

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100 Favourites From The Future: REWIRED

How did he lost it? That's like saying Nolan lost it because of TDKR or that actor lost it because of one bad movie. And it's not like this game got overall bad reviews. Mikami would need to make constant **** for decades in order to lose what he made during his career.

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“By definition, you have to live until you die. Better to make that life as complete and enjoyable an experience as possible, in case death is shite, which I suspect it will be.”

Do they not sell physical copies of PC games anymore?

Yes, but you have to loot a series of identical dank caves to find them. (I think they're called HMVs )

Physical media's kinda dead on PC. The last few games I've bought on disc have contained a Steam code and basic install, which puts Steam on your PC if it wasn't there before.

There are lots of arguments for digital releases, especially in these days of regular patches and fibre optic broadband but GTA V was nearly 60GB and a hell of a lot more people don't have fibre (and do have bandwidth caps) than do so it's nice to have the option.

Never realized the console games weren't discounted because of the need for retailers to push consoles. Kinda helps quells my pc envy.

Console games aren't discounted as often because they're closed markets. Every disc sold has to go through the Xbox or Playstation certification process and you can only download through the Sony or MS stores. Sony and MS would surely love to see the end of bricks and mortar game stores with their nasty, dirty used section where the big two don't get any of the profits but these stores are still useful in terms of promotion.

I'm sure Valve, EA, Ubisoft etc would love to set up their own online storefronts for consoles but that'd mean competition and competition in the marketplace means fighting for your cash.

The way I understood it, digital console games are not discounted (in light of no manufacturing and shipping costs) because retailers wouldn't sell the systems if they couldn't compete in game sales.

The retailers aren't the ones selling digital games, though. That's the publishers with the console manufacturers taking a healthy cut.

It'd make a lot of sense that Gamestop etc throwing an almighty fit when it was announced that the Xbone wouldn't accept used game discs (plus the vocal gamer outcry) helped Microsoft reverse that decision. Throwing bricks and mortar stores a bone when, as you say, they'll be selling your consoles is smart.

Here's the deal. Given the random riddler trophies you find in game, plus the first six of the guide I'm using, we shall see how far I get by Tues.

The last PC game I played was Sanitarium back in 1998.

If you're referring to Arkham Knight, I'm personally not bothering with getting all the Riddler trophies. Yet anyway. I'm doing the Riddler mission and completing the trophies as the last resort before completing the main game.

I've done everything sans the Riddler and waiting for the firemen to finish popping up.

I don't know the exact number of ?'s, challenges, and riddles (200+? )...but it's just too much. Especially when it unlocks "the real ending".

Which has got the square root of bugger all to do with me saying that physical media on PC was dead...

Just spent $5 on Dragon Age: Origins on Ebay for the 360. Never played a Dragon Age game before, but I've never seen anything negative said about the game. What say you hardened gamers?

One of the best traditional rpgs ever made, sez me.

I've played through it multiple times with different character classes and difficulties/mods and had a blast each time. It's a shame that the two subsequent games in the franchise haven't been anywhere near as good.